MEPs put fisheries reform to the vote

The European Parliament will vote on its version of a reformed Common Fisheries Policy when MEPs meet in Strasbourg next week (4-7 February). The vote comes amid a dispute with member states about the Parliament’s powers to change the CFP.

Simon Coveney, Ireland’s agriculture and fisheries minister, has said that he is keen on having the package of legislation on the CFP adopted before Ireland hands over the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers to Lithuania at the beginning of July. Member states’ fisheries ministers backed this aim at a meeting on Monday (28 January).

The ministers also drew up a list of issues that they still consider problematic. They include a ban on discards (fish of the wrong kind or size caught and thrown back into the water) and the obligation to land all catches; the obligation on member states to draft long-term plans for the management of fish stocks based on accurate scientific data; and a dispute over the decision-making procedures that apply to different elements of the CFP reform.

The discard ban and long-term management plans were contained in draft legislation proposed by the European Commission in 2011. Members of the Parliament’s fisheries committee – which includes MEPs representing the views of the fishing industry – generally backed the Commission’s proposals.

The committee adopted its version of the reformed CFP, drafted by Ulrike Rodust, a centre-left German MEP, in December with 13 votes in favour, ten against and two abstentions.

The Parliament’s support for multi-annual management of fish stocks has raised fears among the member states that the Council’s sole competence in setting fish quotas might be under pressure.

Spain wants to delay the application of the discard ban while others want it to be phased in gradually.

Noise levels

On Wednesday (6 February), MEPs will vote on a proposal to limit vehicle noise. An amendment to weaken the proposal was rejected by just one vote in the Parliament’s environment committee. The amendment, which would make limits for heavier passenger cars and lorries easier to meet, will now be voted on by all MEPs, and the result is likely to be close.

The rapporteur, Czech centre-right MEP Miroslav Ouzky, has refused to begin negotiations with member states until after the plenary vote.

In an open letter sent to MEPs this week, green transport group T&E said that the committee’s report “does reflect a true political compromise”. “We urge you to reject any further weakening amendments,” the group said.

MEPs will on Tuesday (5 February) debate the European semester, the EU’s yearly cycle of national budget scrutiny, ahead of the launch of a new cycle at the European Council on 14-15 March. MEPs met parliamentarians from the member states earlier this week to prepare for the debate.

François Hollande, the president of France, will address MEPs on Tuesday. (Another national leader – Moncef Marzouki, Tunisia’s president – will address them on Wednesday.) Hollande is expected to make the case against further cuts to the EU’s seven-year budget ahead of a special summit of EU leaders that starts on Thursday (7 February).

Hollande is seeking to protect agricultural and regional spending against further cuts, and will find that most MEPs are sympathetic to that goal.

MEPs will on Wednesday morning discuss next week’s European Council with José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. They are expected to reiterate their opposition to any deal that sets spending from the EU’s next long-term budget far below the Commission’s proposal.